A government commission has blamed prominent local Uzbeks for provoking the brutal ethnic clashes that left hundreds dead in June, in a verdict which will enrage the former Soviet state's Uzbek minority.

The minority suffered almost three times as many casualties as ethnic Kyrgyz in the clashes.

Abdygany Erkebayev, chief investigator of the national inquiry into the events, said that militant campaigning for community rights by Uzbek leaders had stoked up tension between the two communities. "All these meetings, rallies, and efforts to achieve special status irritated the indigenous Kyrgyz population, and eventually led to the first conflict," he concluded.

Mr Erkebayev pinned the blame in particular on Kadyrzhan Batyrov, a Kyrgyz strongman who fled the country after the events.

He said his investigation had already led to the arrest of several Russian and Uzbek nationals.

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Bloody street fighting broke out on June 10 in Osh, Kyrgystan's second city, and raged for five days, leaving several Uzbek neighbourhoods burned to the ground. About 100,000 Uzbeks were forced to flee the city, many crossing the border into neighbouring Uzbekistan.

Mr Erkebayev said that of the 426 identifiable bodies recovered, 276 were Uzbek and 105 were ethnic Kyrgyz.

In the months following the violence, Human Rights Watch, the international campaign group, has warned of "mob justice and fundamentally flawed investigations", which have overwhelmingly targeted ethnic Uzbeks.

“It’s wrong to blame an entire community for talking about their rights,” said Rachel Denber, Director for Central Asia for Human Rights Watch. “What needs to be investigated is whether there was any criminal content in how that debate was articulated.”

Mr Erkebayev, however, also spread the blame. "The tragic events were provoked not by the Uzbek or the Kyrgyz people, but by people with extremist views," he stressed. He also suggested that there had been some prior organisation ahead of the violence. "Yes, there is a presence of a third force. There are certain facts," he said.

He claimed relatives of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the country's former president, had been involved, and also named the son of Azimbek Beknazarov, a prominent member of the interim government which was replaced last month.

An independent international commission, chaired by Finnish parliamentarian Kimmo Kiljunen, is set to complete an investigation into the events at the end of the month, and intends to make its conclusions public at the end of February.